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You might be cruising through the streets of Dubai, and see that large, hollow, rectangular like building. The frame-like building, unwittingly, is named after its unique shape. It seems to be gold-plated, and swirling designs cover the building from almost every side.

My spring break had just begun, and my family decided to take a trip to Dubai for a refresher. We decided to take a trip to the newly opened Dubai frame.

After navigating the confusing, tangling streets and exits of inner Dubai, we reached the Dubai frame (after numerous re-routing by google maps). The entrance fee for adults (which seemingly included a 12-year-old) was 50 bucks, and 20 for children.

Although the waiting line for going inside the building was about 3o-40 minutes, the queue by most standards for most tourist attractions of this size was quite quick. There was a short exhibition of sorts showcasing Dubai in the 60s to the 80s, and then we took an elevator ride up. The panorama elevator was quite quick, rising 150 metres in 75 seconds, showing the skyline of Dubai as we rose.

When we reached the top, the entire skyline could be seen. On one side here was Deira, and on the other side, you could see Bur Dubai. Unfortunately, it was evening, and the smog was covering most of the skyscrapers. The swirling designs that I mentioned covered a lot of the skyline.

The floor was glass through the middle so that you can see the ground below you. Unfortunately, the lights from the ceiling created a glare in the floor, which ruined most of the effect. There wasn’t much to see aside from that, and the experience was terrible.

There was a short movie that showed how Dubai would look in 50 years or so, but it was quite unrealistic. It showcased stuff pulled right out of a movie like star wars, albeit one set in Dubai. Aside from that, there was nothing else to see.

So, that was my experience in the Dubai frame, which in my opinion is just another one of those tourist traps that seem a bit worthless when you finally get to the main thing.

I woke up to the scent of something vanilla flavoured in my hotel room. It was my second day in Singapore (technically the third day, since we didn’t do anything except for checking in at the airport), and my family didn’t have much in mind. We had been staying in Singapore for three days, and all that we had done was to attend just one theme park. We eventually decided to explore the city itself.

The city is lush with greenery wherever we go. Even the buildings look like the hanging gardens as creepers hung from the skyscrapers, flowing down like a green waterfall. In the centre of each block, a small garden decked with trees were present. The city centre was bustling with traffic, full of cars everywhere.

We arrived in Chinatown. Opposite the bus stand on which we got off was Sri Mariamman temple (one of the Hindu temples in Singapore) which we paid a short visit.

There was a Buddhist half temple/museum nearby called the Buddha tooth relic, where apparently one of the teeth of Lord Buddha was kept. There were about 6 floors, full of relics from the time of Buddha. But the main attraction was this shrine that encased the tooth of Buddha. For a normal tooth, it was simply enormous, being the size of a tennis ball.

The streets in Chinatown were quite crowded; one street next to the Buddha tooth relic temple was filled to the brim with hawkers, street food outlets. The kerb was cluttered with shops trying to sell souvenirs and chopsticks to tourists.

We had lunch in little India, a part of Singapore that had a high concentration of Indians, and then took a taxi to the Merlion statue. The Merlion is a mythical creature that is half lion-half fish. In person, however, the statue was quite small. In my opinion, the statue was quite hyped up.

We decided to go to one last thing before going home. The Gardens by the bay was a really famous attraction in Singapore. It was a vast park consisting of three parts: a huge dome in which a botanical array of plants were displayed. The next one was also a huge dome, in which a huge artificial mountain was set up, covered with plants and flowers. A waterfall flowed from it. There was a stairway set up running to the top of the mountain. At the top, there was a huge garden.

The last attraction includes a lot of huge, artificial trees. Every night, those trees would light in a light show. However, in my opinion, it wasn’t very pleasant since the climate was quite humid, and we had to wait for over three hours. When it was actually time for the light show, it was quite boring.

The next day, we decided to go to universal studios. It took about half an hour to get tickets, but after that, we were in.

The park was divided into various sections. The first one was themed on new york’s Broadway, but it was pretty boring. It was full of cafes. The next one was based on star wars. It had a huge rollercoaster, with two tracks. We skipped that section as well.

The section after that was themed on Shrek. There was a small rollercoaster, and a comedy show, and a 4d shor film.

There was one more small section based on Madagascar, where there was a raft ride. The ride was designed to simulate a storm, and in the end, we all got soaked.

In the end, we all went home. And at the end of the day, we all went to a restaurant called the soup kitchen with this amazing tomato soup.

Singapore is a city-state that is in Asia, that neighbours Malaysia. It is famous partially for its numerous islands and its flora and fauna, but also the hygiene of it’s the bustling metropolis and the greenery. It is this utopia which I selected for my winter holiday.

After a short stop in Sri Lanka, we touched down at Changi airport and quickly went to the hotel, which was where we spent the rest of the day.

The next day, we went Sentosa island. The island contains two parks, the first one being universal studios and the other one is Sentosa park and resort. Since it would take quite some time to visit each theme park, we visited Sentosa park.

There are quite a few ways to go to Sentosa park, but we decided to do the tourist thing to do; ride the cable car. There was a cable car service running from Sentosa island to the mainland.

Once we got to the island, we went on a ride called the luge. A luge is sort of a sledge ride on which you slide down a track. It kind of felt like a high-speed go-karting experience.

After we finished that ride, we went to go on a zip line. I was kind of scared to go on it since I don’t like most high-speed rides; it’s not the speed itself that I don’t like but the sensation that you feel when you drop really suddenly. They buckled me to a harness, and released me by reducing the tension in the zip line; that way, I was free to drop. The ride was over quickly but it was slightly scary for the first two seconds. The zip line rope was from the top of a tall hill all the way to a tiny island, so the ride was pretty steep. I was kind of glad that it was over.

The next ride was called a Segway, and the way it worked was that it was sort of a scooter, and when you lean forward, the scooter kind of pushes forward by itself.

It may not seem like much but that all we did that day. But Sentosa was a really huge island, and it took ages to get from one place to the other.

Today, as I was cycling with my friends, playing and what not, an old memory was brought back to mind. It is quite memorable, and it will be treasured by me for a long time.

Back when I lived in Bangalore, India, i had this tiny (compared to now) red cycle. I was quite adamant to have the training wheels off the cycle, but my father dragged me along the way, saying that i never will learn if i don’t do it. I begged him not to do so on the way to the repair shop, but out went the training wheels.

An hour or two later, I was outside with the cycle once again, my father holding the seat behind me. He promised that he would hold me as I cycled, which he did for a while, until he let go. I was gaining speed and when i looked back I almost fell down. But that was the first time i cycled, truly on my own

So, the past year or so has been pretty busy, and there have been quite a few changes. Aside from the posts that i have done recently, the last one I wrote was when I was 8 years old (I am now 12, studying in 7th grade) I have moved from India, to downtown Abu Dhabi in the UAE. I have made lots of friends here.

My new school is called Gems Cambridge International school. Although it is a bit far away from my house ,(37 km, but the bus takes 1 hour to get there because of the number of stops)I have comfortably settled in. In fact, i have already completed year 6 here.

So, it’s been a year since my last post and i have been inactive for quite a while. I haven’t used the blog much (this is my fourth post) and for a while, i forgot that this section of the blog (the part written by me; the other pages are managed by my dad) existed.

I would like to apologize for not posting anything on this blog, but there have been a few technical matters. I’ll try to be more active in the future…

I joined a new school in Class 3. This is my second school in Bangalore.

On the first day of the new school, in the morning I boarded the bus and took my seat. When I reached the school campus, I did not know where my class was. But I realized that many of the children from all the classes were heading towards the auditorium. Few went to the cafeteria. I made my choice and went to the auditorium. There, one of the teachers told me the way to my class. As it took time to reach my class, I forgot about the breakfast. A class mate of mine helped me to go to the cafeteria. There, I made a new friend and his name is Kushal.

On the first day, the teacher asked us to write an essay on ‘My Summer Holidays’. On a piece of white paper, I jotted down how I spent my holidays. The teacher told us that we will be receiving the school diary after one week. Until that time, we will have to make note of everything in the rough note book.

When I shifted from the United Kingdom to India (the country which I was born in), we moved to Bangalore. First, I was really bored.

My mother however insisted that I should be active and never be dull. I was watching some kids play at our apartment. Then I met a boy called Ram Ganesh, who had the same problem as me. He had also moved from United States of America to Bangalore in India and had no one to play with. We started playing every day and eventually became good friends.He studied in a different school, but in the same class. Ram Ganesh was learning Karate and used to play with me every day after his Karate classes. We used to go to each other’s house and play until he moved out of our apartment. Till date, Ram Ganesh is the best friend I have ever had and I miss him so much.

Introduction

Hi, i’m anirud and welcome to my blog. At the time of writing this, i’m 12 years old. I live in Abudhabi, UAE. Hope you enjoy my blog!